the stain

What do you mean?

It may well happen in different countries, but I am only concerned about what happens here. This is British taxpayers money that is being stolen by employees of the Government. The fact that nothing has been done about this for years is akin to state sponsored corruption. In the olden days, soliders etc caught stealing would be shot. If these stolen weapons get into the hands of terrorists or enemy states and Britain suffers as a result, then I would argue that those responsible should be put on trial for treason.

I shan't bother then.

Is there any nudity?

The reports are indicating that "firearms" are part of the missing equipment.

I remember him playing in the great Saints team of the 80s, hope his coaching is as good as his playing was.

But most people think this about Dune already, so he may as well pay them to be nice to him.

This is still highly amusing. (it's not funny really - you over egged it a while back, it's now just tiresome)

Sorry, but that just sounds like excuse making. £6 bn is not "nothing", it is a massive something. When people's pensions are being cut in the public sector, education is having cuts on it, binmen are having their wages frozen/cut, £6bn is not "nothing". It is wasteful and shameful that this happens and if the pilfering of equipment is so universal, then people need to be sacked - soldiers, sailors, "civvies", managers, whoever is responsible

Good. We got promoted last season, remember?

Are civilians who are part of the army/armed forces, not classified as being part of the army/armed forces?

Hmmmm....

Exactly, so who is putting them up on ebay? Soldiers, sailors, airforce people (whatever they're called) - people like you TDD, so there's no need to get all uppity. Like I said, I'm not having a go at you, what you do in terms of stealing stuff is "normal" for the armed services. We need to make it so that is not the norm.

Under questioning, I see that your military training kicks in.

So you have stolen them then? You don't seem to see that as a problem. There is £6 billion of equipment missing - you have admitted that some of that is in your house. It matters not if the equipment is of no use, it should be returned so that the authorities know where it is. That will help us (a) decide what we need to be investing in - is it new and better equipment or is it a better monitoring system (b) it will let us know that this equipment hasn't fallen into the hands of the enemy. The enemy could be sneaking up on us as we speak, using our own radios to communicate with each other and our own guns to kill us. This is the institutionalised and engrained attitude that we need to get rid of from those in the armed services. I'm not having a go at you TDD, you are just one of the many members of the armed services who feel it is ok to steal from the government, when it is not. I guess having this equipment at home is seen as being one of the "perks" of the job. Imagine what could be done with that £6 billion.

Have you purchased these items yourself?

Can you please return them.

I would employ a crack team of internet warriors to hunt down the evil people and do them in, using only keyboards and words as weapons.

I would buy about 5000 Bowman radios

Over 5000 high tech radios gone missing (£184million) £752m of military equipment, which includes firearms "It is alarming that the department should be unaware of the location, usability or indeed the continued existence of assets to a total value of £6.3bn," (Commons Defence Committee) "The Ministry of Defence cannot account for more than £6 billion of taxpayer-funded spending and its accounts are so chaotic they cannot be signed off by auditors, a report by MPs warns today." Surely the answer here is to put a hold on all military spending until (a) a proper audit is conducted and the whereabouts of the missing items located (b) those items retrieved © a new monitoring system put into place. I don't like my taxes being wasted on pointless wars at the best of times, but when there is such a scant level of regard for the equipment and money being provided then I am even less pleased. Sources: From the Mail: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2011336/Now-did-I-tank-MoD-blasted-losing-assets-worth-6BILLION.html?ito=feeds-newsxml From The Telegraph: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/defence/8617234/Ministry-of-Defence-loses-5000-high-tech-radios-worth-184-million.html From The BBC: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-14018288 (I have tried to make my post look pretty, which different colours, use of bold and italics and underlining.)

Oh dear God. I give up on this thread and possibly humanity.

I don't follow the arguement/point you're making. Yes, the press print gossip and tittle tattle about celebrities, but how does this square with the illegal hacking of a missing schoolgirls phone? Where is the link there? I know you're saying the whole affair is wrong and bad, but why not just say that rather than adding a "but" in there where there doesn't need to be one?

What? The freedom of the press does not extend to illegal activities - surely you're not daft enough to believe that.

Junction 9 knows about this sort of thing - worth dropping him a PM.

He's desperate for attention. And he got it.